| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Mother by Owen Wister: the week. I had just got mother a few more shares.'"
"I left Mr. Beverly's office the possessor of two thousand shares of
Amalgamated Electric, and also entirely reassured about my Petunias. He
always made me feel happy."
"His keen laughing brown eyes, and crisp well-brushed hair, and big
somewhat English way of chaffing (he had gone to Oxford, where he had
rowed on a winning crew) carried a sense of buoyant prosperity that went
with his wiry figure and good smart London clothes. His face was almost
as tawny as an Indian's with the outdoor life that he took care to lead.
I was always flattered when he could spare any time to clap me on the
shoulder and crack a joke."
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde: looking at the stars. [Sits down at C. table.]
DUMBY. We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the
stars? Upon my word, you are very romantic to-night, Darlington.
CECIL GRAHAM. Too romantic! You must be in love. Who is the
girl?
LORD DARLINGTON. The woman I love is not free, or thinks she
isn't. [Glances instinctively at LORD WINDERMERE while he speaks.]
CECIL GRAHAM. A married woman, then! Well, there's nothing in the
world like the devotion of a married woman. It's a thing no
married man knows anything about.
LORD DARLINGTON. Oh! she doesn't love me. She is a good woman.
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: The winner of Waterloo was Cambronne.
To thunder forth such a reply at the lightning-flash that kills
you is to conquer!
Thus to answer the Catastrophe, thus to speak to Fate, to give
this pedestal to the future lion, to hurl such a challenge to the
midnight rainstorm, to the treacherous wall of Hougomont, to the
sunken road of Ohain, to Grouchy's delay, to Blucher's arrival,
to be Irony itself in the tomb, to act so as to stand upright
though fallen, to drown in two syllables the European coalition,
to offer kings privies which the Caesars once knew, to make the lowest
of words the most lofty by entwining with it the glory of France,
Les Miserables |
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from The Heritage of the Desert by Zane Grey: color, most of them had bars of white and gray and red, the last color
predominating. The mustangs and burros filed out among the cedars,
nipping at the sage and the scattered tufts of spare grass. A group of
fires, sending up curling columns of blue smoke, and surrounded by a
circle of lean, half-naked, bronze-skinned Indians, cooking and eating,
completed a picture which afforded Hare the satisfying fulfilment of
boyish dreams. What a contrast to the memory of a camp-site on the
Connecticut shore, with boy friends telling tales in the glow of the
fire, and the wash of the waves on the beach!
The sun sank low in the west, sending gleams through the gnarled branches
of the cedars, and turning the green into gold. At precisely the moment
The Heritage of the Desert |
